Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Bobby Knight has his "YouTube Moment!" What I'm looking for is this: A link to the YouTube clip showing him slapping his player, Michael Prince, on the bench during last night's game. I don't see it on YouTube yet. Can anyone help me out?

(Meanwhile, what a dumb-ass Knight is: 871 career wins and he can't even control himself enough not to physically smack one of his players ON CAMERA. At least do it on a game that isn't televised. In the over/under on games suspended, I'll take "Zero" and you can have every other number. Anyone dare to take me up on it? In the over/under on "media outrage," however, I'll take "too many to count.")

Ohio St-Michigan Countdown: Jim Tressel says that the game's loser should NOT get a second chance in the national title game, but not because it's a competitively corrosive concept (my feeling) -- he just doesn't like the idea of a team not winning its conference championship making the national-title game.

NFL WRAP:

(1) Panthers d. Bucs on MNF: Donovan McNabb could take a lesson from Steve Smith, who upchucked on the sidelines, but not without catching 8 passes for 149 yards and a TD. Boot away!

(2) Brunell benched for Campbell: FINALLY, the Redskins give up on the terrible Brunell experiment in 2006 and go with the 2005 first-round draft pick who has been listed as inactive for 27 career games. The Skins will get better under Campbell, they'll barely miss the playoffs, and it'll be Joe Gibbs' fault for not starting him sooner.

(3) Randy Moss blames his mood: He blames his dropped passes on being unhappy. I'm serious. Even Moody All-Star, T.O. STFU and got the job done.

MLB Awards Season: Today: NL Cy! My pick is by attrition. Brandon Webb's team wasn't in contention; I can't reward Chris Carpenter's 15 wins (particularly after he won the Cy in '05 over a more deserving Roger Clemens). Carlos Zambrano – who is probably the NL's top starting pitcher – just isn't realistic.

So my NL Cy pick? Trevor Hoffman, who led the NL in saves and led his team to the playoffs -- not a bad season for one of MLB's elder statesmen who also happened to set the record for career saves.

MLB HOT STOVE:

(1) Matsuzaka to Red Sox tonight: The announcement will be made official that Theo won the rights to negotiate with the Japanese superstar. It only cost him $45 mil. And that's just to start talking to Scott Boras. (Yikes.) It's the bold move the Red Sox needed. I'm calling it now: Matsuzaka will win the AL Cy Young Award in 2007.

(2) Cubs eyeing Soriano: Having already spent big (5Y/$75M) to keep Aramis Ramirez, the Cubs are looking to drop another $100M(?) to get Alfonso Soriano. The Angels – who were hot for Aramis – likely won't let the Cubs take another player from them.

(3) Mets targeting Barry Zito: Is he a cornerstone pitcher? Does it matter? He'll get paid like one. If I was Omar Minaya, however, I wouldn't give up on trading the farm to the Marlins for Dontrelle Willis, too.

CBB: Vermont stuns B.C.! Chalk up another upset of a traditional power for the Catamounts. Lucky for BC, this was in the second game of the season, not the first round of the NCAA Tournament. But it should give everyone who thinks BC can contend in the ACC this season a moment's pause. (Obviously, quite a few did: BC was ranked 14th. Un-rank 'em!)

NBA Wrap: The Celtics don't just suck, but they suck as bad as they ever have since 1978. LeBron owns New York, both with his 29 points and his commercial presence. The Sonics can beat a solid team like the Nets, but they're still moving to Oklahoma City.

CFB: Butch Davis to UNC. Now, if they'd only, say, get rid of the basketball program, he'd have a fighting chance there.

San Francisco drops out of Olympics 2016 bidding. Down to LA and Chicago to be the US bid. My money's still on Chicago.

43 comments:

Remember in the movie "Mr. Baseball" when Tom Sellick went to Japan they gave him number 45 or something like that because that was the number of home runs they expected him to hit. Well, as a Red Sox fan, I can only hope that "The Japaneese Gyro" (will it catch on?) wears number 27 for the number of wins he's expecting to get or maybe 316 for the number of strikeouts he's expected to have.

I'm still not sold on the player, but I think the move is solid if for no other reason than the returns in revenue it will generat e for the team in the far east. How much money do you think the Mariners and Yankees make in merch sales alone for Ichiro and Matsui respectively?

Skins will still be lucky to win 6 games (take a peak at their shedule); besides, I wonder how many pages of that 700 page playbook campbell has mastered.

As for the Mets, I think another front-line starter can't hurt, but don't sell-out too much of your young guys for pitchers with a lot of miles on them; Wright and Reyes are going to be around for a long, long time; the Mets will be perennial contenders for a while, if they're not stupid, which I don't think Omar is. Maine seems like he might be developing into a hell of a pitcher.

And finally, just because the Sox think a pitcher is worth more than the payroll of a hell of a lot of teams, just to negotiate does not mean he is Cy Young material (although he ought to be). I imagine Santana is still probably a lot better than him.

People are forgetting that this money for the bid doesn't go against your team salary therefore not against the luxury tax either.

The Red Sox can rationalize it by simply viewing it like it is a stadium upgrade...just another way to increase revenue.

The Sox now can get big advertising dollars from Japaneese companies, sell their "pink hats" to all those Toyoko U. Coeds. I predict that the Matsuzaka jersey will be one of the top sellers in all of MLB next year (compounding RSN rabidity with Japans love of their baseball stars)

Even if this blows up in the face of the Bo-Sox, they (probably) won't have a huge contract to get themselves out from under.

I think it's a great move and one that a creative front office (like the Red Sox) can take full advantage of.

Dan I think you may be the only media personality that is upset about Bob Knight tapping a kid on the chin so he would look him in the eye. Prince (the player) had no problem with it and explained why Knight did it, his own MOTHER said it was not a big deal. Everyone interviewed on Mike and Mike this morning said it was not a problem.

The only reason that this is getting any attention at all is because of Bob Knight. Of course you would think that he would know better after what happened at IU. I think you need to see the clip first Dan because the headlines, "Knight slaps player" is very, very misleading.

It was mos. def. a slap in the face....but not too bad. What was worse was the way the kid sold the slap to the face on the bench, moving and stretching his tongue and his jaw around like he just went 10 rounds with Mike Tyson. C'mon...it was a "Pay Attention" slap, B.K. didn't cold cock him.

On a side note....as a bitter Bucs fan I have never seen so many ref calls go against the bucs. WTF was the group celebration, becuase Cox did a rowing motion along with Ronde? But when Steve Smith scores a TD the entire team runs over to him and celebrates.....the refs gave Carolina every advantage. Yes I'm bitter, I'm pissed, and I'm looking for someone to blame, beside the rookie QB, horrible dropped passes from EVERY WR on the team, and DB's that couldn't cover SHIT.

The Red Sox won't benefit from extra merch sales by signing Matsuzaka bc all merch sales are divided equally among all MLB clubs. I'm with Dan that they may be blocking him from coming if they don't get him on the cheap. That or they are trying to get a deal in place with NESN in Japan which is where the Red Sox make all their money anyway.

Just a point of clarification. That 40 million is not salary. that's just the right to negotiate. if they fail to sign him they get that 40 million back, thankfully. at least that's how i understand it.

as for the redskins, campbell is a much welcomed change. unfortunately, as michael wilbon pointed out in his post column today, they have issues beyond the horrible brunell. it's a step in the right direction, but their defense is terrible. their kicker is terrible. a lot of issues with the burgandy and gold.

henry s said... so, if OSU loses to Michigan and only drops to the 2 slot, Tressel will reject the invitation to the Championship Game...we'll hold you to it, coach...

Here's the problem: if Tressel turns down a Championship invite, does that mean he doesn't get a BCS invite at all? If that's the case, he wouldn't turn down the Champ invite because of all the $$$ that the Big Ten would lose.

Also, the BCS has the ability to force matchups in the bowls 'for the good of the game' ... can they force OSU/Michigan loser out of the Championships even if they're 2nd in the BCS?

Weird... I think you overdid your title (blogger is having trouble handling it).

Anyway -

Yes, Bob Knight should have known better just because he's Bob Knight; but I just found the clip (I know you've gone your separate ways, but espn.com is still useful - that stupid Motion Player on the front page has the clip, as does ESPNEWS every 30 minutes), and like Fran Fraschilla says, this is no unthinkable act of coach-on-player violence. They said on E-NEWS that the player looked like he was hurting on the bench, but that doesn't even make any sense, slap-related-injurywise. Maybe it hurt his feelings, sure.

Anyway, I think SportsNation and I are in agreement on the Zero games, and in fact think it would be ludicrous if it were any higher.

Good for Tressel; take that, Oklahoma (Heisman Winner Jason White. Ha!) Let's see if he changes his mind later on (he doesn't seem like the type, but then again, he does seem like the type to have stadium guards thoroughly search Michigan's coaches and players and their bags to psyche them out before The Game. What a fucker.).

What the hell are these NFL guys eating these days (besides Campbells Chunky)? Don't they have trainers for every aspect of their lives or something? Ridiculous.

I guess we'll see about Campbell, but then again, I don't give two shits.

Moss - umm... I don't even know what to say.

NL Cy -Ehh. I can see it being hard to reward 15 wins, but your reason for excluding Webb seems less reasonable. So what if his team was no good? Maybe that makes his 16 wins even more impressive.Mostly I just don't like the idea of giving it to Mr. 479+ because saves seem sort of capricious to me (but then again, I guess official scoring in baseball is so interesting because everything is capricious). Fine, let him have his lifetime achievement award pre-Hall. Whatevs.

I don't want it, but I can't see any way for Matsuzaka to be anything but a huge disappointment. Sorry.

Everything else in the Q is currently in Not-Happening-Yet mode for me; with the Real CFB Season starting and ending on Saturday, I'm ignoring sports that aren't prudent enough to wait for the proper time to start.

I should be on board in a week, but maybe I'll remember I'm in school.

If Clemens "deserved" it in 05, then he didn't deserve it in 04 - Johnson pitched better but had a worse W-L. And as we all know by now, record is partly determined by your team's offensive production.

I still think that the four top candidates should share the award, or at least have Carp and Hoffman split it. Voting for Hoffman outright means the 06 Cy is a Lifetime Achievement Award (see Ron Dayne, Heisman winner). He had a good, not great, season...just like Carp, Oswalt, Webb. Zambrano is a distant 4th because he walked 115 batters -- 16 less than the other 3 combined!

I thought I remembered reading that the Red Sox' salary offer has to at least match their bid, so they would have to pay this guy at least $42 mil. I'm not sure if that's correct though. I still don't see why he's getting all this hype when every other pitcher from Asia has been a bust, or had just a short period of brilliance.

When I think of Japanese starting pitchers I think of Nomo and Irabu, Red Sox better hope that Boras considers some of that $45 mill when negotiating and settles for the 5 year, 50 mill contract....but then again this is Boras. Should be interesting to see what the Sox pay him in total.

I'm kinda dissapointed. BEING FROM DC I CAN TELL YOU SOMETHING. Last year everyone was saying the same thing. Brunells washed up, blah blah blah. But when he led the Skins to 5 W's to end the season 10-6 and a playoff W as well all those people shut up. A quick stat on Brunell...

There are only 3 QBs who have played all their teams games this year who have less INTs than Brunell. (Peyton Manning, Phillip Rivers, Marc Bulger)

That Being Said, I Want Jason Campbell

I don't think people get the whole Matsuzaka thing. Heres why it's worth it to pay 45 mil to negotiate.

1. The red sox are trying to take over Asia. They are also starting a baseball camp in China.

2. They plan on getting it back with partnerships to new Jappanesse sponsors and want to sell a TV package over there.

3. If they fail to reach a deal they get all the money back and the Yanks still don't get him.

CALLING THE BOBBY KNIGHT INCIDENT AN ATTACK WAS COMPLETELY IRRATIONAL

It was a "love tap". Watch the clip. The player said he didn't care. The player's mom said he didn't care. This is WAY LESS AGRESSIVE than a football coach grabbing a guy by the facemask.

great info on matsuzaka and the gyroball, and if you think it's not as great as people say you have to read this

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=jp-gyro031306

(that clip on the top doesn't work, for the best clip i've seen look at the next URL and watch the spin on the ball, I used to pitch and TRUST ME, that's no breaking ball)

The ACC can't disown B.C. in hoops, that is an ACC team losing to Vermont and that might impact the chance of a ACC bubble team making the Tourney in March. It is the little things come back to haunt you on Selection Sunday.

P.S. B.C. cannot lose enough to suit me. I can forgive Miami and V-Tech for going to the ACC but B.C. cannot lose enough money and games to make me happy. Wonder how that Athletic budget tightens flying the Field Hockey team to every away game.

Oh, man - I wasn't even thinking about it until I saw it, but in that 1969 OSU-UM game, the ESPN Classic footage shows Woody Hayes, with OSU down 7-6 at the end of the 1st quarter, hitting some poor assistant-type in the side, because the guy was standing slightly in front of Woody. The victim is holding a cup of liquid, and the blow causes him to spill it; much more violent than B. Knight's little tap last night, I think.

I'm still not sold on the player, but I think the move is solid if for no other reason than the returns in revenue it will generat e for the team in the far east. How much money do you think the Mariners and Yankees make in merch sales alone for Ichiro and Matsui respectively? "

Not exactly...all merchandise sales is part of revenue sharing...so all the money they make off of the mechandise will be split between the 30 teams.....which makes the 45 million dollar investment on someone who has never thrown a pitch in the major leagues JUST to negotiate a deal with him AMAZING!

I would imagine they were the only other early games going on at that time. I am just guessing but I think that was a 12:00 game and the Ivy League was probably the only schools playing at the same time. Plus the Ivy League still meant something in 1969. At least to the Ivy League Network employees.

I'm a huge BC fan, and watched in disgust at the game last night. Simply put, we got beat, and bad. We couldn't box out to save our lives, nor rebound for anything.

That being said, it's only November, and we were without two players (one starter), who were suspended. Also we're really transitioning, having Tyrese Rice handle the point, and introducing Shamari Spears to try and fill in as best he can for Craig Smith. Give them time, and they'll be formidable.

Not quite ready to give up the season quite yet Dan, although I know you think it's probably over already and we should just give Florida the title again.

Mark my word, Florida will not win again. Not because they're not the best team, just because the odds of repeating in the tourney these days is so difficult, even if you have the best team.

"Yeah," Tressel said. "Yeah. … The thing we say as we go into every year, if you want a chance to play for the national championship, you better make the assumption that you need to win every game in your conference and be a champion, and that's the way we enter it. I hadn't thought about it, but you asked the question so I gave you the short answer, I guess."

He never said that he would decline the invite, he said that to go to the NC he feels you need to win your conference.

that to me sounds more like a backhanded shot at the BCS (in favor of a playoff) than anything else. And a shot at ND for not joining a conference.

Being a Michigan fan, I know I'm horribly biased here, but if OSU loses *at* the shoe by more than a blown call, there's absolutely no reason to rematch them against Michigan in the championship. On the other hand, if Michigan plays a close game, you can argue for a rematch, since it would then be on a neutral setting. However, I think I'm already sick of all of the bitching if that happens, so if Michigan loses and doesn't get a rematch, I won't be complaining (out loud).

Yeah, that sure was a slap from Knight (sigh). Jesus, Dan, do you really want even more college kids heading into the world all namby-pamby and prissy, expecting the world to be some cake-walk without confrontation or tough love?

Prince said he had no problem with what Knight did -- heck, he justified the coaching maneuver to get his attention -- so end of story as far as the rest of the world should be concerned. Won't, but should be.

Being a Michigan fan, I know I'm horribly biased here, but if OSU loses *at* the shoe by more than a blown call, there's absolutely no reason to rematch them against Michigan in the championship. On the other hand, if Michigan plays a close game, you can argue for a rematch, since it would then be on a neutral setting.

response to ed in westchester - I don't think MLB could call offering a low salary "negotiating in bad faith", after all, they are just driving a hard bargain. I thought at first that was what the Sox were doing, but that would really piss Boras off, which might not be a good idea...

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